Dublin architect Mr Paul Keogh believes that anyone who lives in the city's inner suburbs and drives into town is "absolutely mad". He and his wife Rachael Chidlow cycle to work from Rathmines almost every day, while their two daughters walk to school.
"Why do I cycle? I suppose the first thing is convenience; the sheer hassle of parking in the city centre is unbearable. But with a bike you can leave it outside the office door and then use it to get to wherever you want to go within the central area in five or 10 minutes."
Mr Keogh says fitness is also a factor. "Cycling is a good way of keeping healthy, and I know lots of people - lawyers, accountants, advertising executives and other architects - who all cycle to work, use their bikes to get around town, and think nothing of it."
One of the great advantages of cycling, he believes, is that anyone on a bike can guarantee "without fail" to be in a certain place at a certain time, however bad the traffic. It takes him just five minutes to get down to the Civic Offices from his own office in Stephen Street.
Mr Keogh says he uses the family's BMW 320i for site visits outside Dublin, supermarket shopping - "though we do less and less of that" - weekend trips down the country, and for carrying bulky items, such as boxes of books and "big piles of papers".
He believes that sitting behind the wheel of a car in heavy traffic is a huge waste of time and those who do it when it is not really necessary are being socially irresponsible. "Even cycling in wet weather is better than walking, waiting for a bus or sitting in a car."
Indeed, in really heavy rain, when the traffic is usually worse, the bicycle is the first option for him. It is also much faster. "If we left the house at 8.15 a.m. in the car, it could take us three-quarters of an hour to get to Stephen Street. On a bike it's 15 minutes."
However, he would not let his two daughters, Alice (13) and Lucy (10), cycle to their respective schools - the High School in Rathgar and Kildare Place National School. "I would just be nervous about it because of the absence of any provision for cyclists in the city."
It takes Alice 15 minutes and Lucy 10 minutes to walk to school each morning and neither of them minds a bit.